Property Assessment 2016

Awesome. It is that time of year you get a letter in the mail from the city of Edmonton telling you how much your home is worth. Hopefully after reading this article you can better understand how the city calculates your taxes and where your money is going. In very simple terms. The more expensive your home is, in a neighbourhood with a lot of service means you’re probably going to pay more in property taxes. And the opposite is true when you don’t pay a lot in taxes. I also want to point out there is something Community Revitalization Levy.

Assessment and Taxes in Community Revitalization Levy Areas

Business and residential homeowners in a Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) area may ask if they pay higher property taxes. The answer is no, they do not. Owning property in a CRL area does not change the total amounts collected in municipal taxes or provincial education property taxes. The tax bill for property located in a CRL area is the same as it was located outside a CRL area.

The difference is in the allocation of a portion of the property tax revenue. With a CRL, a portion of the tax revenue generated by properties within the area is allocated to fund the area’s municipal development projects and infrastructure improvements.

When property values within a CRL increase as a result of new economic growth and development in the area, the taxes arising from these increased values are allocated to paying the costs of improvements. In this way, the general property taxes in the rest of the city do not pay for new public amenities or infrastructure within the CRL area.

How is my property’s assessed value determined?

The assessors at the city of Edmonton use similar criteria to those that Real Estate Agents and property appraisers use when they determine fair market value for a property. So your latest assessment will reflect the value of your property, should it have been sold on the open real estate market as of July 01 the previous year. It is adjusted for any changes in physical condition recorded by December 31 of each year. The provincial legislation has established these dates and requires that property assessments be updated every year.

How do they calculate this?

The city of Edmonton figures out how much money is required to finance its operations from residential tax for the upcoming budget year. This is then divided by what the anticipated assessment, or cost of what all of the residential properties in the municipality are worth. The final outcome is call the Tax Rate or Mill Rate. This Tax Rate or Mill Rate is what is used to calculate a home owner’s residential tax portion of their annual tax bill.

The city then uses the assessed property value to determine the homeowners share of municipal property taxes required to pay for civic programs and services as well as a portion to provincial education taxes.

What do my municipal taxes pay for?

Municipal property taxes pay for an assortment of city of Edmonton programs and services that add to our quality of life in Edmonton.

Police and Fire Protection

Road Maintenance and Snow removal / clearing

parks and swimming pool & maintenance

Public Transit and Neighbourhood Infrastructure

When will I know how much my property taxes are this year?

You will receive your tax notice in May. This is timed with the final approval of the city budget and the provincial education tax is known.

Paying your taxes

You can enrol in the city of Edmonton’s monthly payment plan at any time. Visit edmonton.ca/taxes for more information on your options. You can also build your tax payments into your mortgage payments with most lending institutions. Talk to your bank for more information.

March 11, 2016 is the deadline to file a formal complaint with the assessment review board if you have a discrepancy with the city’s assessed value. June 30, 2016 is the Deadline to Pay your property taxes.

Thank you for reading the Edmonton Real Estate Report. Feel free to Join the Conversationby leaving a comment below or sharing this article. Robert J Fyfe is a licensed Realtor at Realty Executives Progressive in Edmonton and is co-founder of The EdmontonRealEstateReport.ca

Brenna Turvey & Robert Fyfe are co-founders of EdmontonRealEstateReport.com -Providing high quality content and education to people who are interested in the Edmonton market was the main reason to launch the website. Reporting without bias, using the most up-to-date statistics on the real estate market, the economy and other influential factors will always be the standard.
Robert Fyfe is a licensed REALTOR® with Realty Executives Progressive and writes regularly for multiple websites. Brenna Turvey is a professional writer.

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